This past week at the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Samsung and Hyundai Motor Company unveiled a private 5G network streamlined for low-power devices that connect across large facilities. The companies reported their factory’s private 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) network will transmit internal inspection data throughout the facility, speeding up the inspection process and outstripping the performance of the factory’s previous Wi-Fi system.
Developed by industry partners including Qualcomm and Ericsson and standardized by the mobile standards consortium 3GPP in 2022, RedCap was designed in part to meet the needs of industrial and manufacturing environments. It forms part of a larger suite of technologies called 5G New Radio (5G NR), which reduces 5G bandwidth and optimizes power consumption for extended battery life.
As of January, Samsung and Hyundai conducted a pilot project for their private 5G RedCap technology at Samsung’s R&D center in Suwon, South Korea. The goal, they said, was to evaluate the capabilities and integrated performance of RedCap throughout the entire network, beginning with the vehicle inspection terminal.
Samsung has been collaborating with the carmaker to modernize Hyundai’s Ulsan Plant in Ulsan, South Korea—the world’s largest automotive plant, with a 5 million square-meter footprint and average daily production of 6,000 vehicles.
RedCap Tech for Reliable Smart Factories
“[RedCap] is an excellent option for scenarios where low latency is essential,” a Hyundai spokesperson told IEEE Spectrum. “This includes operating many automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots, monitoring work safety, running mission-critical applications, and remote control.”
“One of the key advantages of Private 5G is not only its speed but also its reliability,’” a Hyundai spokesperson said via email. “When there are [only a] few wireless devices, using the existing Wi-Fi network for factory operations is not a problem. But when more wireless devices are used, issues like frequency interference can make it harder to operate factories.”
Meanwhile, Samsung has been rolling out private 5G networks in a range of locations, not just in smart factories, but also in hospitals, construction sites, as well as military and local government facilities.
RedCap enables continuous 5G connections throughout a company’s facilities, a Samsung spokesperson said, guaranteeing uninterrupted and low-latency 5G communication across the entire coverage area.
“Hyundai Motor was the first Korean company to implement [private] 5G in mass production,” vice president and head of Hyundai’s E-FOREST Center Kia Jae Min Lee said in a press release. “We are also the [automobile] industry’s first to verify 5G RedCap technology, reinforcing our global leadership in smart manufacturing solutions. We will continue to accelerate its commercialization.”
“When an enterprise establishes a dedicated 5G network, it ensures that only authorized devices can access the corporate network,” continued the Samsung spokesperson. “This approach differs from the shared infrastructure model used by public telco companies that cater to a wide range of subscribers.”
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